Copper futures declined on Thursday as the dollar hovered near multi-month peaks against its major peers, makes dollar-priced metals more expensive to holders of other currencies. Moreover, concerns about demand following weak manufacturing data from world’s top metal consumer China too weighed on copper prices. However, some losses were capped after data showing that US private payrolls increased more than expected in June.
Copper futures for September delivery lost $0.0530 to settle at $4.2360 a pound on the Comex metals division of New York Mercantile Exchange. Copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.56 percent at $9,322 a ton.